Historic Coins Stolen From St. Louis Museum – KTVI

A crime with historical significance has police looking for suspects and artifacts. Investigators say someone stole six Civil War era silver and gold coins from the St. Louis Transportation Museum over the weekend— one of the coins was worth $15,000!

The coins were inside a secured case and were part of an exhibit on loan to the museum from another museum to mark 150th anniversary of the Civil War. “They’re priceless so it’s extremely important to get them back,” said the President of the Transportation Museum, David Ahner. The coins range from 1849 to 1862- one was a silver dollar, the others were gold.

Ahner says the theft happened sometime between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. “The cases were locked. Apparently the lock was jimmied and the coins were taken. The individual or individuals knew what they were looking for- they took the most valuable coins in the collection,” explained Ahner.

The exhibit on money from the Civil War era was on loan to the Transportation Museum from the American Numismatic Association in Colorado Springs. The association has a museum focused on money. A spokesperson there tells us the six coins that were stolen are worth a total of nearly $19,000. One of the coins- a five dollar gold coin from 1862- is worth $15,000 alone. “You scratch your head and you want to know how can this happen. And I suppose just like anyone else, it’s a fairly helpless feeling when you’ve had something stolen,” said Jay Beeton with the American Numismatic Association.

The exhibit just opened at the Transportation Museum last Friday. Officials there just wants the coins back.”It hurts our reputation here at the museum because we work with other museums in cooperation with lending out our artifacts too….If the individual involved or individuals would return the artifices no charges will be pressed,” said Ahner. Museum officials aren’t ruling out that this could have been an inside job.

There were no signs of a break-in at the building where the coins were being displayed. St. Louis County Police are investigating the case as a theft. A reward of up to $1000 is being offered through Crimestoppers. If you have information, call Crimestoppers or St. Louis County Police.

The exhibit had just opened last Friday.

The transportation museum just wants the coins back. But museum officials aren’t ruling out that this could have been an inside job.